From 26th January to 8th February we had the participation of both academia and their Master degree students from our partner universities in both Ukraine and Belarus, as well as the Ministry officials from Ukraine, who came to visit Bradford on a study visit to learn from best practice in enterprise education.

The majority of the study visit took place at the Re-Centre based at Bradford University. The Re-Centre is a new building in the heart of the campus for partnering with businesses in delivering radical business solutions around sustainability and the circular economy and is the Northern Office of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. Students were set a “Textile Challenge” led by Mariusz Kos and Maarja Hallik with overview from Professor Kalantaridis, the Tempus Project Director in developing a sustainable solution that would assist the revival of the textile industry in Bradford using creativity, critical thinking and design, all skill required in the use of the INNOLAB platforms. The students were split into mixed teams and each team was supported by a network of experts and mentors to work on producing a 1500 word concept paper and a 3 minute video to introduce and sell each teams idea in their first week. The start of the second week was the Networking Event which included the academia of the students universities, The Ministry officials and a panel of experts who were able to judge each of the teams and decide the winners. The winning team’s solution was the concept of “Ramie”.

The students visits included attending lecturers by Professor Kalantaridis, visit to the Bradford College Textile, the heritage of Saltaire and a partnership company Camira Fabrics.

Selected Presentations

During the week from 13 till 18 May 2013 project participants from Belarus and Ukraine took part in the study visit to Bradford University where they got their impressions about the system of cooperation between University, community and business. During the visit the hosts planned a visit to Salford University in Greater Manchester where their unique experience in liaisoning with business and community within fruitfully developing Knowledge Transfer Partnerships was shared. It was important to notice how the two British Universities take an active role in the development of the local community and have feedback from the community thus expanding their role of academic training to regional development and enhancement of entrepreneurship. During the discussion of the project implementation to which a whole day was devoted, the participants summarised the reflections on the three study visits and made conclusions on the best practices learnt as well as the ways of applying the practices at their home Universities with certain changes that would become possible through the present TEMPUS project. Read More →

Our study visit to Tallinn, Estonia was a real experience – efficient week that gave us a lot. A lot of knowledge, impressions, contacts and …fun! Though it was really cold outside (+3ºC and cold Baltic wind) – it was the Estonian spring already. We felt warm and excited.

The first impression from the moment we arrived at the hotel was the understanding – we were in the right place. The INNOLAB project and the logo was everywhere!

Special thanks to the organizers – our partners from Tallinn Technical University Urve Venesaar and Sirje Ustav – for intense and interesting programme that showed us different aspects of knowledge transfer cooperation between university and enterprises & business, implementation of innovations in Estonian economy, exciting workshops, visits to such important supporting and development organizations in Estonia as Enterprise Estonia, Estonian Development Fund, Tallinn Science Park “Technopol”, business incubators and start-ups centers, etc. Read More →

During the period of time from 25 February till 01 March 2013 there was a study visit to Aristotle University of Thessaloniki which took place in accordance with the project Workplan. 25 participants represented the 10 partner Universities.

An initial meeting of the Partners of the Tempus Project “INNOLAB” financed by the European Commission took place on November 5th and 6th, 2012 at the Uzhgorod National University. The partners consisted of representatives of the Universities from Ukraine, Belarus, Estonia, United Kingdom, Greece, and the Business Incubator of Ternopil in Ukraine. Apologies were received from the Ministry of Education & Science in Ukraine.

The meeting served as a valuable opportunity to discuss the project implementation, partner responsibilities and all technical details pertaining to the project. The primary outcome of this initial meeting was to gain a better understanding, originate ideas and decide how to exploit an open innovation learning platform and action research in enterprise education in order to enhance the engagement & innovative capabilities of University in Post-Socialist Societies. Read More →